Instead, I’ll just give some quick thoughts on a few highlights from the year recently ended:

Beer Dinner of the Year: As much as I would love to put the Southern Tier dinner at the top of the list (mainly because I helped out in the planning and promotion and acted as a co-host for the evening.), I’m afraid that there’s no competition with this one – the winner is clearly the Dogfish Head dinner at beerbistro back in May. I can only hope and pray that Sam Calagione was serious when he said that he’d like to make it an annual event.

New Bar of the Year: While they don’t really promote themselves as a ‘beer destination’ per se, I have to give props to The Cock & Tail. The tap line-up is solid, with lots of local favourites, and the bottle selection of (mostly) imports is quite impressive for what is essentially a neighbourhood hangout and watering hole. A lot of new bars are lured over to the dark side with promises of discounts and kickbacks, and end up with the standard line-up of bland macros and shitty imports available at so many other places, so it’s great to see that some owners are willing to stick with their principles to serve the good stuff. (Runner-up: The Football Factory)

New Local Beer of the Year: There were probably a few new beers that I enjoyed more last year, notably festival one-offs and the like. But my favourite new brew that’s regularly available is Granite Hopping Mad. As a hoppy pale ale, it’s a beer that would probably seem pedestrian to many, especially any Americans reading this. But here in a province where hop-forward beers are still a bit of a novelty, it’s nice to have another addition to the few that we have.

I’m sure if I stewed on this a bit longer, I could come up with a few more things to add to the list, but I’d like to get this done before the next new year comes around. So let’s leave it at that.